Carey desu, yoroshiku!

I'm a Capetonian currently living in Osaka.This should make me jouzu at Japanese, but alas.

I have two technical questions! One is, how do I type in kana on this forum?The second is, how can I type in kana in Vista Word? Tetsudai shite kudasai! I have been attempting to do this for a year now, clearly, unsuccessfully.

Can you already see Japanese characters on your computer? Presumably you can. But either way. The ability to read / write kana will depend on what operating system you're running. Regardless, I think one of the most expansive tutorials on this process can be found at: http://www.declan-software.com/japanese_ime/

Select your operating system, and follow ze instructions. For windows XP machines, it's pretty easy, but you may need a windows disk. If that fails, things can be tricky, but you can try installing the fonts from another source. Hope that helps! Lemme know if you can't work it out from that link.

Nice to hear from you again. How's life in Osaka treating you? I hear being vegetarian in Japan is quite tricky, let alone vegan!!

That page Admin suggested should point you in the right direction. After you've added a "Japanese keyboard" you should be able to click the "EN" in your language bar (next to the system time and all of that stuff) and change it to JP. Then click on (probably) the A symbol and change from Direct Input to Hiragana/Katakana. After that, simply type KA and you'll get a か.

Hope that helps. I'm sure everyone here would be keen to hear about some of your Osaka experiences some time. Keep well, till then.

Hehe, yeah that page really helped. I figured out I just hadn't been clicking one box in control panel ... how frustrating!

Anyway, I've been over here for 10 months already, can't believe it. It feels surreal to even type that. I'll be coming back in mid-July for a holiday, so if you guys are having any meetings at varsity over that period, I'd love to pop in and say hi.

Life here is one big adventure. I've settled in pretty well, but simple things like shopping and sending postcards remain challenging, to say the least. Never thought buying a postage stamp could be so scary!

Being vegan here is actually ok, now that I know some kanji and the useful phrases, as well as the answers to my questions (when I came over, I only knew how to ask what was in things, and no idea how to interpret what I was told!). Fish is really, really, hontou ni in absolutely friggin everything, but ja. There are a bunch of veggie restaurants, so that helps.

@ haku: nagano is a great place for snowboarding! i went up there this past winter; almost broke my wrists and got lost (not almost, really did get lost) on the mountain ... but i'm a beginner, so ... the resort was really beautiful tho - and huge! can see why they had the winter olympics there.

but when u apply, also put down some really inaka places, as they like to see you're prepared to go out into the sticks. by no means apply for tokyo, kyoto or osaka!! (i actually applied for ibaraki - happy irony .

We can and must definitely organize something for when you come back for your break. Tho being a JP group, everyone will probably be like "yay, sushi!" and you'll be "please, no more japanese food"

I need to put more thought into where I'd like to go for JET. On one hand, I'd love to visit Osaka and some other places because I hear they're awesome, but on the other, I would want to go somewhere that hopefully speaks standard Japanese and not Kansai / other dialects! Otherwise even after all my studying, I probably won't be able to follow their conversation.

Lol. Well, actually, I have only eaten sushi like twice since I've been here. So I was really hoping to chow down on some good (veggie) sushi in July! Surprisingly, there are only a few sushi places in my area. After a long and confusing mission, two conveyor belt sushi joints were located, but the sushi in SA is actually a lot better! I can't speak about the fish sushi tho.

Osaka-ben isn't so bad; once you learn the chow chow chow chow joke, you're in. It's the old people and teenagers which scare me. 0_o The mumbling and slang ... it's er ... challenging. But I think as long as you don't end up in Okinawa, you'll be fine. They place you wherever they want anyway, hehehe.

WOW so you are actually on the JEt programme! i also considered at a time and may do it later. what is it like to be a south african there? how is your pay compared to the cost of things over there? have you been there 10 months straight with no holiday trip back? do you get homesick at all? and what is the weather like?

It is actually pretty cool being a Saffer here. There are only about 550 South Africans in Japan, so we're a bit of a rarity. People can never guess where we're from, and when they find out, they love to ask a million questions about the cities, politics, climate and amount of time it takes to get home. Hehe. The Americans are totally jealous. But it can also get pretty lonely - like when no one understands ja, or our sense of humour ... but there are a few South Africans living nearby, so that helps.

It rocks being able to talk furtively in Afrikaans!!

The pay is decent, but the cost of living is high, as you know. At least 3 x higher than in SA, maybe more. Fruit is especially expensive. Apples cost like R40 each and melons, well melons can cost up to R1000. For one. Serious. Still, it is possible to avoid scurvy, travel a bit and save (though juggling the travelling and saving is tricky).

Yes, I get homesick - and it's been 10 months straight. Sniff! But I did take a trip to New Zealand in Dec, to see some family, so that helped.

As for the weather, Osaka is allegedly "moderate", but compared to CT, it's extreme. Summer is like 35 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Day and night. Winter is like 1 degree with snow (though not so much here). But there's not much wind, so that's good. Spring and autumn are definitely the best seasons though.

It`s been a lonely night in Shizuoka... hence surfing the web whilst listening to the inanity of high-pitched female voices on tv.....

But I suppose I should introduce myself before I start to sound like a stalker crazy person

Hello!! I`m Miki, half-SA half-Jap. Attended a few of Keigo Aoki`s classes and am now snuggled between the rolling green hills and bay of Shizuoka. Been here since... April. Oh, not teaching English or anything... just getting back in touch with the roots, for now

Ah! I was glad to read that life in Japan`s still tough after 10 months... not that I mean any ill towards you :p It`s just getting a little daunting that my Japanese hasn`t improved substantially since I`ve come. Haven`t been studying it much, to tell you the truth, so I can barely string together a sentence :p

Hmm... No one I`ve met has been able to discern my accent... really, everyone always guesses that it`s American or British =/ Haven`t met any South Africans in the area, though. There`re quite a few Brazillians and the odd European, but most of the foreign folk here are usually above 35 years old. Suppose it`s `cos this is more of a farming district than anything else. Wouldn`t be able to stand living in somewhere like Tokyo for too long in any case. Too much grey =S

Hm... there are some pics of Shizuoka on FB. I`ve been here a couple of times before so, to tell the truth, I`ve given up being all touristy and so haven`t taken any new pics :p I`ll try dig out some old ones of Izu and the rest of Shizuoka! Otherwise.... it`s not that fantastic, comparatively. It`s a pretty small place with a whole lotta farms scattered all over the place. The city is the biggest of the prefecture (I live in Shizuoka City) but it`s nothing compared to Tokyo :p Which I quite like.... reminds me of quaint ol` ct.

What I miss most is the beach!!! Only rocks, crows and tetrapods here Lucky Freda.... she`ll have herself a Hello Kitty land soon

I didn't get email notifications of these posts for some reason ... hence the delayed reply.So Shizuoka hey? Only driven thru there myself - pulled over at a roadside P to take a snap of Mt Fuji. Give me a shout if u head thru to Osaka sometime.

Less humidity? Hmm, u might wanna head to Blouberg. Japan and humidity = one and the same, at least in summer, anyway.

How are ppl towards me? Generally pretty friendly, altho there is definitely that "true" speak and "polite" speak thing. Sometimes I can't figure out whether people are genuinely interested in talking to me, or just being the polite host type. And sometimes people leave in the middle of conversations ... now that bothers me!! I am wondering if I should have brought more deodorant over ...